22/02/2020 Strontian, Highlands of Scotland

American Black Duck: A few weeks ago the lads agreed to come with me on the epic journey up to see the famous American black duck that has been living on the west of Scotland for thirteen years. But, with the weather reports looking pretty awful and the restricted time we had it was going to be a bit of a gamble.

Hale showers, torrential rain, snow flurries, gusts of over 70 miles an hour winds and some skillful driving we made it in once piece, thankfully.

We stayed at The Inn at Ardgour, right opposite the Corran Ferry terminal, a lovely and very accomodating hotel.

After dodging breakfast and heading out super early we ended up spending seven long, fruitless hours searching the entire length of the river, the shores of the loch and came up with no American bcal duck. We even ended splitting up a number of times to cover more ground.

It was during one of these times towards the very end of the day I was scanning the banks of the loch that sits right in front of the Strontian Hotel I picked up the same male and female mallard that had been in this area all afternoon. I then noticed two other ducks appear from the further most outcrop of rocks that lead into the bay. 

At first they were silhouetted by the sun before joining the original pair and entered a more sheltered area, my jaw dropped and I struggled to steady the tripod in the combination of excitement and gusty wind that was pelting me.

The two new birds that had just entered the bay included the American black duck! Bingo!!!

I phoned the lads, who were further up the river still searching for the bird. I calmly told them to hurry up as I had just found the bird, not before long I could hear the familiar sounds of hurried steps and the sounds of trepidation. By the time they joined me the mallards followed by the black duck flew across the bay and in to the river mouth.

Here the bird peeled off from the rest of the mallard group and made its way up stream accompanied by a single male mallard. This brought the bird much closer the we expected giving us a great opportunity to reel of some images and see the bird up close. We were thrilled, the gamble paid off, the hours spent in less than perfect weather was all worth while. The bird was in the bag.

Hybridised Mallard x Black Duck: One of the the things we were keeping our eyes out for where the mallards as we knew the black duck was associating with them, we were also looking out for any birds that were the offspring between the back duck and mallards.

Patrick and I found one right up the far end of the river. Much darker bird with yellowish, but predominantly darker bill and much more feathering pattern similar to a female mallard then the pure black duck.

Otter: When you spend so much time in one of the most beautiful parts of the country you are surely going to stumble across other exciting wildlife.

We had this otter in the river mouth opposite Kilcamb Lodge, a highlight of the trip and something that gave us positive boost during the long search for the duck.

The otter was happily feeding close to shore catching small fish. We also had black guillemot near the ferry terminal, dipper on the river and some lovely looking male goosander.

Greylag Geese: A great if a a very long hard worked twitch. Thanks for the company Gary, Patrick and Tobie thanks for keeping me awake during the long journey there and back.

11/02/2020 Bredon's Hardwick, Worcester

Smew: Living in the North West I don't often get to see drake smew, up here get a couple of redheads turn up on our lakes but its particularly rare to get a stonking male.

So it was good to get the change to catch up with one while I was working away in Tewkesbury this week.

This place was like Fort Knox with 10ft high fencing around the whole perimeter of the lake, barbed-wire and eclectic fencing and the only edge that you can view the lake due to public access has a 6ft high Leylandii hedge!!!  Its only fish!

Despite the unwelcoming, locked down conditions of the lake the bird showed pretty well, if a little too far for some decent images.

So here's a few images of a drake smew I took at Slimbridge WWT the same day. In these images you can see their saw like bill and their white crests.

These really are distinctive, dapper little ducks. With their punky head feather crests, black mask and cracked white plumages they really stand out.

02/02/2020 Ribble & Alt Estuaries

Purple Heron: I love my job, I really do, but being stuck in the office for a week with no survey work scheduled in isn't good for the soul.  So it was good to get out and with some good mates, Gary and Tobie and do some local birding.

We headed south early morning to Ashton flashes in Northwich, were I was hoping to get better views of the Sibe stonechat. After looking in the wrong area for about an hour Dan Foy turned up without any binoculars or a camera spotted the bird in the north east corner - you can't make this stuff up!

The bird was showing much better and much more closer. We had our fill, grabbed a McDonalds then headed north to Pilling near Preston.

This time our target bird was the long staying purple heron which again put on a better show then the first time I saw it. The heron was foraging in the open in the middle of a field.

Barn Owl: We were also treated to a brilliant barn owl coming out of its roost from the nearby sheds. This bird is probably the most photographed wild barn owl in the north west and although it quickly disappeared after we saw it, I think I will have to come back and try again with it.

The purple heron seems like it's being a little more mobile and foraging further away from its favorite ditch, one day soon it might just go for good!

Long-billed Dowitcher: Next stop, Southport where we bumped in to some local legends, John Dempsey and Graham Clarkson who were busy searching for some barnacle geese across the marsh. 

We however were interested ins seeing another long stayer, the dowitcher who was in pretty much the precise location to when I saw the bird back on the 11th of January, the day after it turned up.

The bird was happily feeding amongst a group of mallard and appeared to be the only wader in the area except for some distant curlew and redshank.

Our last stop before we lost the light was to Martin Mere, were we bagged the Tundra bean goose before getting kicked out by the surely staff members who were obviously keen to clock off on time and with no exceptions!!. Forget the fact Gary and Tobie paid almost £30 for an hour and a half visit.

25/01/2020 Martin Mere WWT

Swan Goose: After spending almost a week indoors fighting off a horrible cold I was glad to get out and about this Saturday afternoon.

I thought I would take it easy and go somewhere that provides a nice warm hide, a place to grab some hot drinks and cake and a place with a bean goose also on the menu. So I shot over to Martin Mere WWT.

Black-tailed Godwit: Nice also to see the bizarre looking swan goose that wasn't shy and came right up to the waters edge before heading off with a gaggle of greylag geese.

This swan goose is considered as a feral bird, reading up on this species I have leaned that there are some feral breeding swan geese in Germany and the closest potentially wild bird record is nearly 4000 miles away!!

Swan geese can be found in Mongolia and they winter in SE China.

There were a few black-tailed godwits foraging around the rocky banks of the main mere.

This pair regularly broke out in fighting, squawking, flapping and pecking at each other it was fascinating to watch.

And look closer, I had several shots were the birds held each others bill and even appeared to peck inside the opponents bill. Both of them were trying to pull out each others feathers..

Aggressive behaviour!!

Tundra Bean Goose: The Bean Goose was still present feeding around the main mere loafing around with a small flock of pink feet's.

Turndra's are a stockier bird than the common pink-footed goose Turndra's appear darker and browner in appearance. But its their combination of orange legs and orange in the bill that are the main ID features.

These images show a really nice comparison between the two geese and their bills colouration. 

There were also 2 Mediterranean gulls on the main mere within the large black-headed gull flock. I also had a lovely marsh harrier flyby, 60ish ruff and three common snipe. No sign of the tawny owl n its box.

Common Snipe: Really enjoyable afternoon out, nice hot drink and some more cold & flu tablets and I will be back to my normal self.

18/01/2020 Rhos-on-sea, Conwy

Purple Sandpiper: It was great to finally catch up with conwy's famous purple sandpipers. I've been here several times but never managed to see the purps that so many birders and photographers talk about.

These winter visitors are widely distributed around the coast and are most abundant in the northern isles particularly Shetland, Hebrides and along the east coast of Scotland, north-eastern England and Devon and Cornwall and pretty much scarce elsewhere.

Rhos-on-sea is a prime location and one of the best in the north west to see these dumpy medium sized waders as they roost and forage on the sea defences close to shore.

Although their numbers have remained low over the years compared to other places such as New Brighton marina lake on the Wirral.







I've spent hours over many years on my annual visit to New Brighton's marina lake for purple sands, but never have I had such close and confiding views as I did here at Rhos-on-sea.

There were just two birds on the breakwater spending their time picking away at the rocks in search of food and came pretty close hopping over the large boulders and rocks.

Big thank you to Mel Hughes who kindly pointed in the right location of the birds, cheers mate, I owe you one.

11/01/2020 RSPB Marshside, Southport

Long-billed Dowitcher: Its always good when there's a decent local bird to twitch, the news of this bird came through late afternoon yesterday and I it would be rude not to go over and see it.

This is my third LBD but possibly the best showing of the three. Upon arriving the bird was roosting behind some vegetation before being spooked.

It then got picked up by the expert eyes of Mark Nightingale as it fed along a distant ditch.

Here are some dodgy phone scope images of the bird when it was further up the ditch. The bird eventually came a lot closer.

Unfortunately I missed out on the white triangular patch above its tail and white uppertail-covers the bird exhibits in flight, all I ended up with from the flight shots were blurry brown blobs streaking across the sky!

Note to self, must try harder!